Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 22:47:53 -0700
From: Mills Mike
Author: UNKNOWN
S. AFRICA'S GAYS HAVE MUCH TO CELEBRATE
CONSTITUTION ENSURING SEXUAL FREEDOM IS THE ONLY ONE OF ITS KIND IN THE WORLD
When Simon Nkoli's friends and family found out his lover was a white bus
driver, they weren't sure what shocked them more-that he had broken the law
by having a relationship with a white, or that he had broken the law by
having a relationship with a man.
"It was really tough. I really lost lots of my friends," said Nkoli, now
35 and South Africa's most prominent black gay activist.
That was in the late 1970s, when apartheid was in full force and South
Africa was in the grip of a white minority regime that regulated every aspect
of life, outlawing not only racial mixing but all kinds of sexual behavior,
including homosexuality.
The dawn of democracy in South Africa this year was therefore as
revolutionary for the country's gay community as it was for its black
majority.
The new constitution prohibits discrimination not only on the basis of
race and gender, but also on the basis of "sexual orientation," making it the
only constitution in the world that specifically protects homosexuals.
Legislation outlawing homosexual activity remains on the books but is
likely to be overruled as unconstitutional. Word already has gone out to
magistrates not to prosecute homosexual cases.
So when several thousand men and women took to the streets of Johannesburg
last weekend for their first Gay Pride parade, the mood was celebratory. Gays
had marched before, but as militants to demand recognition.
"It's a lovely document. It's the only one in the world that says it's
wrong to discriminate against gays," said a march organizer, Ian Leslie.
But the marchers had a message, too: Gays are as much a part of the
"rainbow nation" promised by President Nelson Mandela as are the country's
diverse racial groups.
"We live in a brighter, more tolerant South Africa now. People are proud
of their flag and their nationhood. But this means incorporating gay people
into the life of the nation," said Leslie.
And that, says Nkoli, is going to be harder to achieve than mere words on
paper.
The African National Congress quietly slipped the phrase protecting gays
into the constitution without public debate.
But South Africa remains a powerfully homophobic country, with anti-gay
sentiment prevalent among all sectors of society. The courts vigorously
prosecuted sodomy cases until last year, and gay activists estimate that
three gays are murdered every week in anti-homosexual attacks.
Life is particularly hard for gays who are black, said Nkoli, because of
powerful cultural and social taboos against homosexuality in their
communities. Winnie Mandela and other prominent black leaders have publicly
said that homosexuality is not part of "African" culture.
"They say it's foreign and has been imported by white people," Nkoli said.
"But you can talk to African gays and they'll tell you they never had contact
with other cultures. They discovered their sexuality within their own
cultures."
In traditional black communities, that can be a frightening experience,
Nkoli recalled.
"I used to see how people treated feminine men in the townships, calling
them names. Some were beaten in the streets just because they walked like a
woman and talked like a woman."
Things have changed since Nkoli made his bold decision to "come out" in
1978. A prominent anti-apartheid activist and student leader of the 1976
Soweto uprising, he found himself ostracized on all sides. When he was
sentenced to four years in prison for opposing apartheid, he was expelled by
the country's only gay support group, which was dominated by whites.
At the same time, many of his friends and colleagues wanted to expel him
from the anti-apartheid student movement he led.
"The most cruel thing was that I didn't know other gay people," he said.
"The only gay support groups were in town, and because of the apartheid
system blacks weren't allowed to go to town and socialize with whites. It was
against the law for a white man and a black woman to marry, and it was even
worse for men who wanted to reach out across the color line to each other."
These days, there are gay support groups in the townships and
"gay-friendly" shebeens, or taverns, where black gays can meet. Nkoli is in a
long-term relationship, and both families have come to accept their sons'
sexuality.
The cause of gay rights has won some powerful allies, among them
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President Mandela, who has publicly endorsed the
concept of equality for homosexuals.
The challenge to the gay community now is to ensure that the clause
protecting homosexuality remains in the final constitution being written by
the national legislature.